Karnataka by-election 2018 were held for the three Lok Sabha – Bellari, Shimoga and Mandya and two assembly seats – Jamkhandi and Ramanagara on Saturday. The ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka today won 4 out of 5 seats.
Congress VS Ugruppa and Janata Dal Secular (JDS)’s LR Shivaramegowda won Ballari and Mandya Lok Sabha seats, with a margin of 2,43,161 and 3,24,943 votes respectively. Congress A S Nyamagouda and Anitha Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) won Jamkhandi and Ramanagaram assembly constituencies, by a margin of 39,480 and 1,09,137 votes, respectively on Tuesday . Anitha Kumaraswamy is he wife of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. On the otherside BJP’s Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra BY Raghavendra won the Shimoga parliamentary seat with a margin of 5,21,48 votes. The victory margin of the Congress in Bellary Lok Sabha seat and Jamkhandi Assembly seat has shocked the BJP.
Out of the 3 parliamentary constituencies, the BJP held two, while the JDS one. The (Bhartiya Janatha Party)BJP holds Shivamogga, which is a stronghold of its state chief BS Yeddyurappa.
The Congress leader P Chidambaram has reacted to alliance’s performance, said that the coalition has delivered.
The Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said, “Congress-JD(S) combine victory in Karnataka bypolls indicates that the alliance with secular parties can defeat the BJP.”
In 2014, the BJP had won 17 of Karnataka’s 28 parliamentary seats. The Congress won 9 and HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal Secular (JDS) 2 seats. The BJP won 104 of the 224 seats in the assembly election in May.
The counting of votes for 3 Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats in Karnataka, started morning. The security arrangements were put in place and the police were deployed around the counting centres and strongrooms since morning, where the EVMs are placed.
The loss in the byelections comes as a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.